Preparing Operations for The Future of Video: VAST & VPAID

Preparing Operations for The Future of Video: VAST & VPAID

It’s no secret that online video advertising is seen by both publishers and marketers as the next big thing. But for all the interest, the dollars aren’t going to flow until standards and best practices are widely established and broadly accepted. Considering the variety of video players, ad formats and types of video, this will be no easy task.

To help the industry move toward standardization, the IAB (US) recently introduced VAST and VPAID to provide a standard language for various video advertising systems to start to work together and to help automate error-prone manual processes. But for VAST and VPAID to fulfill on their promise, Ad Operations leaders need to start to dig into the details and understand what VAST and VPAID will mean for them, their processes and their systems. Joey Trotz, Senior Director of Strategic Ad Technology for Turner Broadcasting has been involved in the VAST and VPAID initiatives from the beginning and will speak specifically about the impact they will have on Ad Operations teams who have to support video advertising. Please join us for a conversation that will get beyond the standards and get into the best practices!

Session Details

Audience research groups like IPG’s Magna, forecasts a 32 percent increase in online video ad spending in 2009 and amazingly enough, that’s a reduced estimate. According to Magna, online video ad spending will grow from $531 million in 2008 to $699 million in 2009. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as broadband penetration in the U.S. surpasses 75% and as users look for more video content, marketers and publishers are looking to capitalize on what many feel is a superior marketing opportunity than traditional banner impressions. Publishers are ramping up their video content production in the hopes that monetizing video will be a bright spot in a pretty dismal year.

Unfortunately the major obstacle for marketers and publishers is the lack of standards and best practices around online video advertising. From creation through to billing, video ads provide more challenges than standard display ads. They are harder to create, they are harder to traffic and process and it’s harder to forecast inventory.  This, coupled with the myriad of formats, ad specs, players and player environments, prevents agencies from buying more inventory and publishers from generating more revenue.

Some of these issues arise from the fact that online video advertising is still evolving. It’s too early to say which formats and players should or will be the standard. If anything, now is the time for agencies and publishers to experiment with online video formats and see what proves most effective.

The solution then is to let the various permutations of videos ads continue but to at least have these various systems speak a common language. This is what the IAB’s initiatives around VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) and VPAID (Video Player-Ad Interface Definition) are about and hopefully with the industry’s support, VAST & VPAID will allow the advertising to more easily flow through the process.

The key to the success of VAST and VPAID is Ad Operations. It will be the Ad Ops leaders who help set the road map for implementation of these standards within their companies. Ad Ops will need to understand what these standards can and can’t do and how they relate to other initiatives in the industry.

Ad Operations will need to establish best practices for online video advertising.

As the only professional association exclusively dedicated to online advertising operations and technology, AdMonsters focuses on these best practices and with the help of our sponsor Auditude will be hosting an Online Technical Forum live on June 24th, 2009 at 2pm EST for a cost of $99. A recording of the event will be available after the live event for a cost of $75. Registration is open to anyone in ad operations or sales management for a publisher, agency or network.

Presenting will be Joey Trotz, Senior Director, Strategic Advertising Technology at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Joey has served as co-chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Digital Video Committee, supporting the development of the VAST and VPAID standards over the past year. Joey’s understanding of these initiatives as well as his experience with Ad Operations provide a unique opportunity for Ad Operations professionals to truly learn what they should be doing now to fully take advantage of VAST & VPAID.

About the Session Leader: Joey Trotz

Joey Trotz is the Senior Director, Strategic Advertising Technology in the Strategic Audience Solutions division at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Mr. Trotz works on the policies, strategies and vision where technology and monetization intersect. He provides guidance to clients across Turner, including CNN.com, NBA.com, TBS.com, PGATour.com, Cartoonnetwork.com and others. He also serves as co-chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Digital Video Committee, supporting the development of the VAST and VPAID standards over the past year. 

Previously at Turner, Mr. Trotz held roles managing enterprise-wide digital advertising technology and product development. He has also directed product development for interactive television and emerging platforms for the company’s Web sites and cable networks. Mr. Trotz began his career at Turner in executive leadership roles in event coverage, program management and advertising operations for SI.com, the Web site of Sports Illustrated magazine.